When You Save the World
by irine18
Summary: After saving the world from Gruum, SPD has a new mission: to attend a ball? Zcentric.
1. Dress Up

She felt silly. They had just saved the world and now she was wearing a dress. There was nothing wrong with the dress, it was simple, soft gold, though a little bit fancier than she would have liked. Her unruly waves were tamed into an upswept twist and she was wearing more makeup than she ever had before.

As soon as Jack sees me he'll laugh. Her oldest and best friend always joked about how tomboyish she was. She was going to miss spending time with him since he was leaving SPD.

She walked over to the mirror and looked at her reflection. She had come a long way from being an orphan on the street.

"How long are you going to keep looking at yourself?"

Z turned around and saw Syd coming out of the bathroom. It was so easy for her; she was the glamorous one, the one with the rich family and the great childhood. Sydney was wearing a pink ball gown. The corset like top sparkled with sequins over the chiffon skirt. Her hair was also up with an explosion of curls falling down.

"Syd, can't I wear something different? You know, maybe a nice pant suit or something? You never know when we'll have to fight some robots."

"Oh come on, you look so cute! And I didn't spend 5 hours trying to find you something to wear, so that you can not wear it." Sydney practically bounced as she came over and started to fuss over her hair.

Z looked at herself again. Damn ball.

One week ago...

Commander Cruger paced the command center as he waited for the B-squad rangers to arrive. They walked in talking in a random fashion. Even Sky looked relaxed; being the red ranger had eased many of his strict tendencies. They lined up and saluted the commander.

"B-squad, in honor of the defeat of Gruumm and for saving Earth, the world council has decided to hold a ball to recognize your actions. Jack Landors will also be attendance because of his former status as red ranger of B squad.

This will require you to be in formal wear, not dress uniforms, so I suggest you look for something appropriate to wear. That is all, dismissed."


	2. Shopping

The rangers made their way back to the recreation room after the meeting. Sydney was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. Sky was taking in the fact that they were being recognized, he was so proud his uniform could have burst. Bridge was making toast. And Z, well Z was not as excited.

"We have dress uniforms?" she asked.

"Yeah you know, it's in your closet? The big ugly grey thing," answered Syd.

"That? I thought it was an elephant costume or something. It had shoulder pads and a weird gold swoop thing."

"If you think that's bad you should see the guys' uniform, tights." Bridge and Sky both shuddered.

"Well," Z continued, "I don't have anything to wear." Syd lit up at those words.

"That's no problem, we can go shopping! Right, guys?" The pink ranger looked around the room and saw that everyone was gone.

"Guys?"

----SPD-----

Z ended up at the mall with Sydney despite all her protesting. The guys had vanished from sight. After 50 stores, 5 shopping bags full of clothes, and no dresses later, the female component of the squad arrived at the Bridal House. It was white, a brilliant white that made your teeth ache in envy.

"You get the best deals on dresses at bridal shops, plus it's fun to dream about that special day," commented Sydney as she started to wander among the dresses.

Z never thought about getting married. When she was a little girl there was no flowers and frou frou, there was taunting and loneliness. She looked at the rows of white dresses and wondered if she could be wearing one of them one day. She absent mindedly followed Sydney as they made their way to the special occasion dresses. The white rows of bridal gowns opened up to a rainbow of shiny dresses. It seemed like every hue in the world was represented in chiffon, silk, and satin.

"Okay, I will not get a yellow dress," Z thought to herself as she started to thumb through the dresses. It had started almost as soon as she received her morpher, she would pick up a yellow shirt while shopping, the other colors migrated to the back of her closet, and before she knew it she looked like she had hit a lemon tree head on.

She kept thinking about the color thing. God forbid that she wear pink, which used to be her favorite color, Syd would maul her for that. And does this mean that Sky and Bridge have to ditch their whole wardrobes because they changed colors? Well, Sky probably has an array of red shirts in preparation for the one day he would be the red ranger. But now does he give all his blue to Bridge?

It was stranger not seeing Bridge in green anymore. Z could not imagine herself in anything other than yellow. Maybe she could have been green, or maybe they'll get another green ranger.

As she was deep in thought, she had subconsciously picked out a dress. It was gold, damn it, with spaghetti straps that criss-crossed over a low back. It was made of a slinky silk that felt smooth in her hands.

"Wow, that's pretty. Go try it on, I'm headed to the dressing room myself," Syd had crept up on her somehow with ten pink dresses in hand. They walked to the back of the store and got into adjoining dressing rooms.

Z undressed and bundled up the dress over her head and let it flow down her body. The year of ranger training had done her good. The silk clung in the right places and she felt both luxurious and comfortable in it.

"Come out, I want to see!" came from the partition that separated the girls. The yellow ranger walked out to the round platform surrounded by mirrors. Sydney came out of the dressing room wearing a bright pink halter with a side slit up to her thigh.

"It's perfect." Z couldn't help but agree.

"Okay, I just have 24 more dresses to try on!"

Z groaned at the prospect of an impromptu fashion show all in pink. They were at the mall for two long torturous hours.

-----SPD----

When they got back, Z with her one perfect dress and Syd with her 5 maybe dresses, it was straight to bed. Before sleeping, Z could not help but take out her new dress and try it on one more time. She did an exaggerated model walk to the mirror, turned and hung the dress right back in her closet, next to the gray lump of her dress uniform and amongst all the yellow.


End file.
